Economic Structure of China - Chinese Economic Profile

By: EconomyWatch   Date: 30 June 2010

About The Author

EconomyWatch

The core Content Team our economy, industry, investing and personal finance reference articles.

EconomyWatch, Content Team

 

  • Dot Div
  •      

Structural changes in China’s economy gave more authority to local officials and plant managers, and permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprises in the service and light manufacturing sector to boom.

Due to its increasing openness to foreign trade and investment, in 1999, China became the second largest economy of the world after the USA.

Since 1978, China has been moving towards a market oriented economy. China de-collectivized agriculture, yielded tremendous gains in production. Driven by a sharp rise in the procurement price paid for crops and what amounted to the semi-privatization of agriculture. The share of agricultural output in total GDP rose from 30 percent in 1980 to 33 percent three years later.

However, the share of agriculture started falling shortly after, and by 2002 it accounted for only 15.4 percent of GDP. In 2010, the agriculture sector accounted for 10.9 percent of GDP, 48.6 percent from industry and 40.5 percent from services. 39.5 percent of the 812.7 million labor force is employed in agriculture, 27.2 percent in industry and 33.2 percent in services.

Most of China's agricultural production is restricted to the east of the country. China is the world's largest producer of rice and wheat - for cash crops, China ranks first in cotton and tobacco and is an important producer of oilseeds, silk, tea, ramie, jute, hemp, sugarcane, and sugar beets.

China also ranks first in world production of red meat (including beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and pork). Due to improved technology, the fishing industry has grown considerably since the late 1970s.

Apart from crops and food products, China is one of the world's major mineral-producing countries. Coal is the most abundant mineral (China ranks first in coal production). There are also extensive iron-ore deposits in China; the largest mines are at Anshan and Benxi, in Liaoning province.

Oil fields were discovered in the 1960s and turned China into a net exporter, and by the early 1990s, China was the world's fifth-ranked oil producer. Growing domestic demand beginning in the mid-1990s however, has forced the nation to import increasing quantities of petroleum.

Coal is the single most important energy source; coal-fired thermal electric generators provide over 70 percent of the country's electric power. China also has extensive hydroelectric energy potential.

ROLE OF STATE vs MARKET IN CHINA

Until 1978, industrial output was dominated by large state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Gradually, the share of state-owned and state-holding enterprises in gross industrial output value had shrunk; in 2002 it was around 41 percent. However, state-owned companies, controlled by economic ministries in Beijing (Capital of China), represented only 16 percent of industrial output. State-holding enterprises may control large numbers of state firms, and are not 100 percent state-owned.

The changes in economic policy, including decentralization of control and the creation of "special economic zones" to attract foreign investment, led to considerable industrial growth, especially in light industries that produce consumer goods.

2010 China’s Economic Indicators at a Glance:

Geography: Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam

Terrain: mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east

Climate: extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north

Natural Resources: coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, rare earth elements, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)

Population: 1.341 billion

Age groups: 0-14 years: 19.8%; 15-64 years: 72.1%; 65 years and over: 8.1%

Labor Force: agriculture: 39.5% industry: 27.2% services: 33.2%

Unemployment: 4.1 %.


  • Dot Div
  •      

Most Popular in China Economy

Related Links
blog comments powered by Disqus